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help me art! [nsfw]

Hey, I'm trying to learn how to draw because I think its the coolest way to tell stories. I'm mostly copying images off of my phone. I'm hoping some of the awesome artists here can point me in the right direction and hopefully flatten the learning curve a bit.
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Copying other peoples art can be a good way to learn. I would invest more heavily in drawing things from real life, or if you are copying other peoples art, build up forms using geometric shapes, that way you can learn how to build your own forms.

I'd suggest buying a sketchbook rather than using loose leaf or a lined notebook. It's fun to do some doodles and such in a notebook but if you're going to sit down and draw then it's better to have some paper that's clean and doesn't have any lines on it.Also, drawing using a ball point pen is probably not ideal when you're still learning. You're going to have a hard time erasing and correcting any mistakes that you've made when you're sketching in ink. If you want to ink your drawing afterward then I'd suggest that you get another piece of paper and a light box, some tracing paper or scan it and ink it digitally.

Studying another artist is a good way to learn how to ape their style. But you might be better off drawing from life for a while in order to try to get a better understanding of drawing in three dimensions. There are some very handy books that you should still be able to find out there like Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain. Yous should be able to find some links in the Questions, Discussion & Tutorials thread stuck at the top of this forum.

I think the best advice is to just draw everyday. Maintaining that level of dedication can be difficult on its own. However, with enough practice you'll see improvement.

it flattens the image so it's easier than a real model. the important thing about drawing from real life versus another drawing is in the second one there is a degree of separation, so you are using that person's interpretation of the human body instead of the real thing

Hey guys, I've been practicing and I feel like I made some progress, any guidance would be helpful. I've noticed that whatever part of the face I start with ends up not really fitting in with the rest.

Just noticed all of these are mirrored as well, seems to have a strange effect.

Get yourself a sketchbook!
There are great resources on line and at the library, but all of them are going to rely heavily on you just drawing and drawing and drawing. I would recommend you stay away from trying to nail a specific manga or comic style and start with the basics of form, how objects relate to each other in space, lighting, perspective, etc. There are lots of videos and lessons all over the internet. Keep your mind open too. The more styles and media you try, the more you will learn.
Don't get frustrated. I can't stress that enough. don't just post finished things either. Show us your process and be open to the feedback people here give you. No one wants to cut you down, we want to see you and everyone else who has a desire to produce art, succeed.
Remember that no artist ever stops learning either. Those of us who went to art school don't get our diploma then simply close our minds and do our thing. If you keep that in mind, it should help you realize that as long as you're making art...you're improving.

I'll try to go through my bookmarks and see if i have some good references to help, but for now, draw everything around you.
"Drawing on the right side of the brain" by betty edwards is a great tool and a great place to start. It helps you "see" better. I do a lot of the warm up exercises i learned in there still to get myself loosened up.

I don't know if there's a specific medium that is better for improving your drawing skills, but I think it would help you to do sketches in light pencil before inking them. That way you can get a good feel for the subject you are drawing before finalizing it in ink. It's easier to fix things that way.

Ollie is correct. Pen pretty much commits you to the line you have drawn. I would draw in pencil. this will give you the ability to correct things as you see them. Looking at your last image you can see that you have elongated the neck. In the ref photo his chin is over his left shoulder. In your image the head is completely clear of the body. With pencil you could correct this.

I don't want you in the mind set of doing completed images right now. I know thats really exciting, but i would love to see you breaking down the form more and understanding whats going on instead of just copying the image. plus plotting out your image with plumb lines will help. for example....if you drew a line down vertically from his chin to the bottom of the image, you would notice the intersects with his knee. In your image the knee falls to the right of that line.
learning the major forms of the body will let you know how they interact with each other and takes much of the guess work out of where things should be place, and instead of copying you're creating....(i hope some of this makes sense. once i have my comp working right i'll try to break it down in photoshop to visualize what im saying more.

Basically breaking down the elements of the body into more simple shapes And understand how those shapes relate to each other and interact with each other.
The torso on the last figure you posted is elongated and bending in a very un natural way. If you were to try to draw a skeleton or generalize the shapes of the pelvis chest area, you would see how they aren't quite fitting correctly.

Your shading right now is pretty erratic. You should try doing some simple pencil gradients where you attempt to get an even, smooth tone. I'll dig up some examples when im not on my phone. Simple shape studies would be good as well.

I don't want you in the mind set of doing completed images right now. I know thats really exciting, but i would love to see you breaking down the form more and understanding whats going on instead of just copying the image.

Exactly what I was thinking. As someone who is just recently trying to get back into drawing (and telling myself this time it's going to stick), I've learned this lesson myself. It's much more important at this stage of your development to focus on the underlying shapes and structures of what you're drawing rather than getting too wrapped up in all the little details. Granted, I don't know exactly what your drawing process is, but it looks from these examples that you're not doing much, if any, underdrawing before getting right into the finished figure or face. Rough out the basic shapes first, make sure everything is in proportion and in the right place. This will also help with the problem that you mention of the part where you start the drawing not fitting in with the rest, since you'll be figuring out where everything goes before you start putting in the details.

I think 12 months has really shown how well you are developing your skills. In the pencil work you have done some of the shading tones could do with having a little more depth with places like the hair shadows being a little darker.

I would personally look into shading now without drawing outlines. Using the negative space of the paper. Its a difficult technique to learn and master but whenever I have taught my Year 11 students it, they have really appreciated the way it changes their own perspective on drawing.

Keep up the excellent work.

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Leaps and bounds. These head studies are much more realistic in terms of proportion, structure, and light and shadow. Including ref would invite more specific critique, but in general I'd say keep on practicing with blocking in, measuring, and nailing those proportions. Hard to tell if camera tilt is contributing at all, but that last figure appears to have very long, thick legs in relation to the torso, and a pretty small head. Do you ever use your pencil for measuring? This has helped me fix proportion issues more times than I could count (or better yet, avoid them altogether). This Proko video demonstrates how to do it.

I agree with Ziggymon - it would be really great to see you push your understanding of light and shadow. One helpful exercise for that would be setting up a really simple still life with just a sphere, cube, cone, or egg, lighting it with one direct light source, then rendering the snot out of it, really focusing on getting down every degree of light and dark exactly as they appear in your still life, and every edge, whether sharp or soft. I think you'll be surprised by how much there is to see and observe, and I guarantee this will really help you out in the long run with being able to depict forms that are solid and believable.